Statue of Antonín Dvorák, Prague, Czech Republic

The statue of Antonín Dvorák was unveiled on 4th June 2000 at the end of the famous festival Prague Spring in Jan Palach Square in front of the House of Artists. As early as 1949 the former Prague Municipal Authority decided that the statue would stand in the park near Rudolfinum and allotted its construction to sculptor Josef Wagner and architect Pavel Smetana. The former Minister of Culture, however, decided in 1951 that the statue of painter Josef Mánes would stand there. He is said to have disliked Dvorák, because as a young man he was rejected by Dvorák´s daughter Otylka who gave preference to composer Josef Suk. The three-metre-high statue of Dvorák is placed in front of Rudolfinum, where Dvorák conducted the first concert of the Czech Philharmonic, where the premieres of his compositions took place and where he used to teach at the master’s school of the conservatoire.